New hair and huge bump :)

Well Ben came back this time last week... and then he left again yesterday!! Thank goodness this is is his fourth and FINAL week away in the last eight weeks... he's been away more than he's been here :( I can officially say that the novelty of going to bed earlier and getting up later, and having lots of free evenings to be crafty with my sewing machine has now worn off and I am very keen to have him home for GOOD! (Well, until July when he has a field trip, but he's home with us all of May and June, hoorayyyyyyyyyy!)

This afternoon I had the wonderful high-maintenance pleasure of getting my hair done. I got it on a groupon offer with tons of money off, and I had half a head of highlights, a wash, cut, blowdry and conditioning. A friend round the corner, Kim, was wonderful and had Oliver for me while I was enjoying being pampered, and fed him his tea too! Ahhhhh. It was bliss, and I am really pleased with it. I've also discovered that it is really nice to have your hair washed by someone else. Maybe I will be rich and not very famous one day and have a live-in lady who washes my hair a couple of times a week??? Haha, that must be what celebrities do. And she would do my ironing too... ooh, I have it all planned out :D

Here it is:

In other life news, I am sure that Baby Two wants to come out!! It is partying most of the time, and pushing down with quite a bit of pressure. Maybe one day it will just push out :) We are all ready with our Baby-coming-early-contingency-plan that means that Ben carries his passport wherever he goes in case I ring him and tell him it's starting. Then he's got to phone an airport and jump on the next plane home! Better cross my legs until he is back on Friday...

Also for your viewing pleasure - a preview of Baby Two!

P.S. The photos were taken on our webcam- I don't want to get the camera out of the hospital bag in case I forget to re-pack it!!

Recent happenings, mostly without Ben

Hello hello, it has been a while but we are all still alive, and no,  it isn't because I have had the baby!

Things are all well here at the moment. Sorry, no pictures, just a lot of rabbiting! The most drastic (!) things this week are these:

- Ben went on a helicopter! That was pretty cool and manly. He said it was REALLY loud and they all had to wear three layers of survival gear, in case they ditched the water... glad they didn't! He had a fairly good time on the drill ship last week- things had to keep being stopped as they checked for safety etc so there was a lot of waiting around which got a bit boring... like all of my evenings alone, boo hoo! It is so wonderful to have him back with us now- if only for a "limited time only" (He leaves again for training in London on Sunday...)

- On Monday morning I got to speak to my Grandparents on skype. It was lovely and a testament to their impressive technical skills that they could log on without a problem and we could all hear each other :) However, while we were chatting Oliver walloped his head (nothing new there) when he fell over... and all of a sudden there was lots of sad crying and a LOT of blood. I said goodbye to N and G pretty sharpish and starting mopping up with a tee-towel and washing it all into the sink, it was quite scary and I wasn't quite sure where it was all coming from. After a while a drink did the trick and he seemed okay again, just a bit needy, and dribbling blood every now and again... urgh! It wasn't until a couple of hours later that he let me look in his mouth and I saw that there were two huge teeth marks- like a stamp- in the middle of his tongue... it looked absolutely horrendous and we later took him to the Doctors just in case they suggested stitches or anything else scary- the Dr was very impressed at what a good job he'd done, but said there wasn't anything they could do- just take him to the hospital if it went all dodgy and it should heal on its own. Phew. I wonder if he will have a scar on his tongue? Urgh. So that was sad news, although all is well now and it doesn't seem to be bothering him!

- On a happier note, Baby Two is now headdown, engaged and ready to come out soon!! Woah. I am just past 36 weeks so still technically 4 weeks (+??) to go though, but I'm still feeling good about a second early birth... please??! Heartbeat is still quite speedy... does that indicate it's a girl, or is it a boy who is particularly excitable or out of breath?? I've been washing all the baby clothes and blankets the last couple of days and Ben got the Moses basket back out of the loft for me. It's getting quite official, ahhhhhh.

... I think that is it! My latest crafty project (Oliver's car mat) has been coming on pretty quick with Ben away, but it would be even quicker if I could sort out whatever I am doing wrong with the sewing machine, boo hoo! But I am really enjoying it.

In which Ben and Ab have a night without the baby!

On Friday night Ben left work a bit early and we headed off into the sunset on our long-awaited one night away between feeding Oliver and the next baby!!

I booked us a "deluxe guestroom plus" at a 4* Hilton hotel in the lovely village of Ballater. Ballater is in Royal Deeside, close to Balmoral Estate (owned by the Queen) and most of the shops have royal crests on them because the butcher/baker/outfitters also provides services for the Royal family!! Ooh ahh. It is about 90 minutes from Aberdeen.

We had a lovely time snuggling and went out for a meal in the village on Friday evening (for once in our married life I didn't pick a more expensive meal than Ben, phew!) and after a leisurely lie-in on Saturday morning we got a big buffet breakfast in the restaurant followed by a swim in the hotel pool and a soak in the jacuzzi.

Unfortunately I was having braxton hicks (practise contractions) practically all day on Saturday and leg cramps so that put a bit of a dampener on it, but we turned our planned intrepid walk around nearby Loch Muick into a shorter, still beautiful one around a bit of the Loch. We nearly got blown away by all the wind though!!!! Around the Loch we spotted about 20 deer and later four stags standing quite close to us. They were huge and very majestic looking.

We came back around teatime on Saturday to find Nanny T and Grandpops (Ben's parents!) had spoiled Oliver rotten with his very first pair of shoes... Clarks of course! :) They are the teeniest size they do: 3G and VERY cute, and suedy. He has been impressing us toddling around the house all week and now he is quite the pro, making manouvres, turning corners and going over small bumps.

All in all a wonderful 24 hours away. Ahhhh married life is the best. And so is going home to Oliver. It was lovely for Ben's parents to have some Oliver-time, and we enjoyed seeing them for the rest of the weekend too

Some photos from the weekend:

The two of us ready to go on Friday night

My very intrepid husband (the hood was necessary, we were nearly blown away!)

Me

Intrepid like his Daddy, complete with new shoes!

Busy doing nice things...

Sorry for the gap in updating- I am having a block on what we've been up to the last couple of weeks, but it's felt pretty busy!

We have had a lot of baths:

... and a few walks...

... and Oliver learnt how to get INtomy clever toy drawers (they're not so clever anymore!!)

He has become obsessed with writing and drawing and he's pretty good at it:

... and this weekend we took him to a playbarn centre and Ben took him on this wobbly slide, and then the death slide!! Oliver didn't seem too bothered, so it was a success :)

In other news, Oliver and I have been out and about swimming with friends, to baby groups and setting up my own baby group (a Music one, at last! The first class is this Monday coming and I am EXCITED!) Ben got a good first review from BP and things are going well there.

We are achieving our Resolution of oging on more dates and we've had a couple already- we saw Sherlock Holmes at the cinema and we had an "in" date- I made a dodgy orange chicken dinner in the slow cooker and we ate it by candlelight and then watched Amelie. Apart from my dodgy food it was wonderful and we are more in love than ever. We have a couple more in the works so that's nice to look forward to.

I am getting quite the bump and I am now 24 weeks pregnant, so cooking nicely. Baby Two kicks a LOT which is nice, and all seems well! I am really enjoying being very crafty at the mo (as in, I am in the middle of lots of craft projects) and I'm having a wonderful time with my fuzzy felt and fur remnants making little animals for my baby book.

The only bad thing at the mo is that Oliver has discovered his screaming voice again. For absolutely no reason- he's bored/hungry/happy/just making noises to go along with his life etc- he will let out REALLY loud, REALLY high-pitched screams, and he does it a LOT. It's hard to be patient when he keeps damaging our eardrums for life! I keep repeating "it's only a phase, it's only a phase" to myself, but it's anybody's guess if we should ignore it or come down hard on it. Suggests welcome!

Well I can't think of anything else that's going on at the mo. As usual, life in the Twigger home is plodding along nicely...

Latest goings-on with us...

Hello, just to let it known that we are all still alive and well despite my blogging absence! In recent happenings...

- Ben got a new bike! It was absolutely necessary since he cycles to work and he had really flogged his last one, which had been stuck in the two highest gears for months now, and has really EMBARRASSINGLY squeaky brakes and was really on his way out. His new one is much cleaner, doesn't squeak and presumerably gives him a much smoother (and safer?!) ride. Although it's getting pretty icy up here now so he may have to start driving in at some point, or his limbs might start dropping off!

- Oliver continues to amaze us, and believe it or not, is into EVERYTHING even more than before. I admit, sometimes I am absolutely exhausted in the yucky 6-7pm hour of Ben coming home, dinner making and a waily, sleepy baby who goes off to bed straight after dinner (usually at 7pm). Having said that, he now officially sleeps through the night!! I can pretty much sign him off, since he sleeps through more than he wakes now: amazing. It's been fairly guaranteed for the past two weeks now, so next time I will know that it took us ELEVEN AND A HALF MONTHS to get to this point!!! I think I'm glad I didn't know that upfront when he was born, I might have cried! Now he is so old and mature he is taking on a lot of responsibility around the house. Here he is doing his assigned 'chore' of emptying the tumble drier when the washing is done:

What a good boy!! :)

- Oliver went to the cinema for the first time!! It was a BP event- they hired out the cinema screen to see 'Arthur Christmas'- a very lovely new animated film, and we thought since it was free we'd try Oliver at it. Each person also got £5 to spend on pick and mix or popcorn etc, so we had £15 between us which was quite outrageous!! Oliver surpassed all our expectations and only got wiggly and restless during the last 15 minutes (when I did the only thing left and gave him milky! He usually only has it once a day now- just before bed) But the rest of the whole film he spent sitting on Ben's lap and the two of them munched through the best part of a big bag of popcorn!! It was very funny to watch Oliver eating popcorn continuously without taking his eyes of the screen. Also a bit scary how naturally it came to him!

- A couple of weeks ago we went to an Enchanted Castle- it was an evening National Trust event with the castle open to the public and all lit up, enchanted trails in the gardens, storytelling, a hog roast and fire eaters! We wrapped up warm and had a lovely time wearing our glow sticks and woolly hats.

- This past weekend we had Ben's parents come to stay with us. It was lovely to see them and they particularly enjoyed spending time with Oliver- he was always very silly and giggly with Mum which was nice. They took lots of photos, but I did get this one: (It's 'We're going on a bear hunt'- arguably the best book ever written)

While they were here we enjoyed lots of walks in the chilly but sunny weather and one day we went to Stonehaven- a nearby pretty village by the sea- and Dunnoter Castle- an amazing ruined medieval castle right on top of the sea. We also put our Christmas tree up on Sunday afternoon and now that I've finished all the present buying I am really starting to get in the mood... :)

- In sadder news, our car has been kangarooring the last couple of weeks. We took it in to be looked at back then but they weren't sure what it was and it has been getting worse ever since... we kept worrying it would just conk out at the weekend, but luckily we got Mum and Dad to and from the airport fine. It's in its second garage today... although I have a third booked up later this week just in case!! I hope they can work out what it is and sort it without it costing an arm and a leg. Poor car- it does treat us so well usually!

Exciting, wonderful, happy, lovely news!

Ben is back, hooray!!! He got back yesterday afternoon and all is well :)

In other news, I can confirm that... I am housing an 88 mm small Twiglet in my tummy. Hooray!!!!

I got to see it on the ultrasound yesterday morning, and despite it doing "advanced gymnastics" with its ankles crossed we could see a heartbeat, and few limbs and a couple of eyes too, so hooray it is really in there! Baby Two is due mid-May, although I have to go back for another scan tomorrow morning (hooray, Ben will be there!) so they can measure stuff properly and give me a more accurate due date. I saw two different specialists yesterday because they couldn't get it to budge out of a very tight corner (VERY close to my bladder!)- but to no avail. I am 15 weeks along and after feeling pretty rubbish for the first few weeks I am now feeling wonderful... just starting to put on the podge and really look as though I might be pregnant! Happy, happy news.

Pictures to follow- hopefully he/she will be feeling more photogenic tomorrow!

Ben is off again!!

I am getting used to life without a husband- it is quite lonely!! He was away for training in Windsor all of last week, and a couple of days ago we found out that he could do his first bit of 'offshore' experience for a few days. He is basically on the boat to watch and learn and ask questions, while they do a site survey (I think they drop things off the boat and do tests about the strength of the seabed for prospective wells... perhaps??!) I think they are going quite far North (even further!!) and probably into Norwegian waters.

I dropped him off at the Harbour this morning, complete with Artic jacket, bright orange BP jumpsuit, balaclava and the whole lot! It was quite bizarre, since that isn't usually what he does for his work. When we got there, there was a line a crew members loading up the boat- the Ocean Seeker- with food. I spied UHT milk, orange and apple juice and SPAM!! For some reason spam always makes me laugh.

I'm not quite sure why, but in the end they didn't set sail until this afternoon, at about 4ish, but Ben had kept me updated so Oliver and I could wave him off and run along the Harbour wall as far as I could with the buggy until I got to lots of spikey fences. It was quite exciting and I felt a bit like we were in a film :) I tried to take a couple of photos but it was getting quite dark and they didn't turn out very well. But he is off! I stocked him up with travel sickness tablets, but he's a bit sicky at the best of times... urgh. Fingers crossed all will be well and he won't be away too long.

I found a photo of the boat online:

Ben= My Own Personal Handy Man!

At the weekend our washing machine suddenly started spewing out a lot of water out of the drawer and the bottom and any other cranny it could find. We mopped it up with towels and tried to get the water to drain out by putting it on a rinse and spin again, but it only spewed out more. Cue Ben, the notoriously logical and manly problem solver, who immediately put on his thinking cap talking about a blockage somewhere in the machine, etc... Last night he got out his tool box (I have a husband with a tool box, cool!) and started pulling bits of the machine apart, until he found the thing that was blocking the machine. Or rather, things:

1. Two eaten up washable breast pads (I was wondering why I can only find two of the 12 that I own. Perhaps they have all died a similar death)
2. One earring (not mine, must belong to the landlord)
3. 1x £1 coin
4. 1x 5p
5. One fairly large ball... Ben then informed me that this was part of the machine, so he'd better put that one back
6. One bit of plastic that said 'Abercrombie and Fitch' on it (again, must belong to the landlord- we are not that cool!)
7. One hairband.

How, HOW, did all those things manage to get stuck in the machine?!! It's a miracle the poor machine was washing anything at all.

Hooray for a wonderful husband!! :)

BP

I am officially a BP fan. Of course, I'm not the one working there, but from my unique wife-y perspective, the working hours are GREAT. Ben works 8am- 5pm 9 days in every two weeks... because he gets every other Friday off! Very nice. In fact, I've always said that BP feels a bit like 'The Firm' (John Grisham) cos they treat you so well, surely something has to be wrong?!! I love that film.

I digress... It turns out we really do get a discount on petrol! That made us laugh.

Another thing was that on Friday Ben amazingly got us tickets to the last BP Dinner Dance- basically a free, BP party! There were over 300 people there, sat a big round tables, so it was a pretty grand affair. It was outrageously glitzy- in a big hotel, with arty food, and LOTS of cutlery and glasses, and a really amazing, but slightly crazy live band. Shiny lights and everything!

After three scrummy courses and lots of wine (or water for us! - apparently they'd have to charge me for orange juice... even when I reminded the waitress that it was probably cheaper than wine, but no luck...) we boogied on down, and Ben cracked out all his crazy moves. He is GOOD! I always feel completely rubbish dancing next to him, but I feel cool to be with him!

Here we are-

Ben was quite sad to leave around 11pm since the dancing was in full force, but we had left Oliver with a new babysitter, and he's getting into the habit of waking for his first feed before midnight!! What made everything totally wonderful was our babysitter, Christine, was having the best time ever watching the first two Star Wars films, and Oliver had just started to stir as we got back around 11.30pm! Superb. Christine was brilliant and we got on well too! Ahh, it's also a major relief of motherhood when your baby behaves exactly like you told someone they will, and didn't scare her away!

Hurrah, I love BP. Ben has also had his first paycheck now, so that helps! :)

Our new house and other news

Look at our new house!!!

We just got back from a wonderful time in Aberdeen, house hunting and exploring our new surroundings. I loved it, and the scenery on the drive up there was incredible! 

It has a garden, nice furniture etc, two bedrooms, it's in a lovely quiet Crescenty area with a church, park and community centre nearby and it is just lovely and the right price!! Hooray!! We're moving in on 10th Sept.

In other news...

We stayed with friends on the way home- Emily and Widge Guy - which was just fab since we haven't seen them for over a year which was very sad!! They were wonderful hosts and we had a great time with them and look forward to seeing them again soon. While we were there OLIVER SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT for the first time in his life!!!!!!!!!!!!! He went to bed at 9pm and woke up at 7.45am, with no milky in between!!!!!!!!! Wahoo. Last night it was back to business as usual and I fed him twice, but at least I now know that it is possible!

And Oliver is getting more impressive by the day, because yesterday evening I felt his first tooth! I can see it poking through and everything- it was a bizarrely emotional moment :) His cousin Seb has 8 teeth and he is only two months older, so we are glad our little Squeaker is starting to catch up!

And here is a sad piece of news from Ben: he had an intense medical for going offshore with BP (which he passed, by the way) and they told him that he has a " mild irreversible hearing impediment" in one of his ears, or something along those lines, probably from listening to loud music?? We don't really listen to any so I'm not really sure what caused it. Either way, I tease him by speaking in his other ear and nice and slow, but we hope he won't need a hearing aid before he's 40...!

Ben= "Master of Dad's Allotment!"

Look at this!

We have already had a lot of stuffed marrows recently, so now I'm moving on to courgette bread and I just found a 'chocolate courgette cake' recipe! http://allrecipes.co.uk/recipe/6186/chocolate-courgette-cake.aspx

Ben= "Master of Natural Sciences and Bachelor of Arts"

It's official!! Ben has graduated! We had a super day yesterday. He knelt in front of the President of his college, Hughes Hall, and she 'admitted' him to his degree, all in latin and the full dress! He looked very smart (and very attractive), and I was very proud of him. There were lots of photos of Ben's parents too, but they are on his Mum's camera and not mine... but they were definitely there, and it was lovely!

... And so ends our Cambridge Adventure.

Us!

Ben, looking wise in front of his college

Oliver, being safe in the punt!

Punting with family afterwards

Oliver, being safe in the punt!

Emily had a go!

Today Last Year

Ben is in exam time... again! He is cramming as much as possible until his two weeks of exams start next Tuesday.

My current journal begins with this day last year (Mon 24th May 2010) so it's quite funny to read how nothing much has changed for him... not like my 'Oliver' day job! It talks about how I was 11 weeks pregnant then: "I am accumulating a bit of 'podge'- whether it's baby fat, extra water or too many puddings I'm not exactly sure- but my tummy does feel harder than usual! I am now at 11 weeks. Lovely!!"

I wrote about Ben's intense revision too: "He is being reeeeasonably productive... with breaks only to jump on top of me or to break into his favourite rendition of "Abby Woo, oh, I love you, oh..." (to the tune of Holst's Jupiter!) All he needs is a 2.i. to stay with BP (phew, haha)"

It's funny to read how my life has changed so much, but Ben's is totally the same!

My Top Five

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I get the strangest feeling...

... that I'm really going to enjoy Friday afternoons! Ben's rather cushy timetable means that he's home for lunch and is now 'hacking' a bush in the garden, feeling very manly, while I feed and read stories to Olly Woo. Life is good!

I'm also really enjoying keeping up with 'Jailbreak 2011' - a Cambridge University tradition where pairs of students have 36 hours to get as far away from Cambridge without spending any of their own money on travel. It started at 9am and can be tracked online (a bit like Santa tracker!!) It can be found here - http://www.cambridgerag.org.uk/jailbreak-2011-map/ I am sponsoring team 87 because I know Andrew from choir. I've pledged £2 per type of transport they use! :)

Other good news is that Olly Woo slept six hours straight again last night!!! I can hardly believe it! Life really IS good!

Abby :)

Recent happenings!

Hello!

I've never written a blog before (and it's kind of American, really) but I love journal writing and thought that this is one more thing I can do while Oliver is feeding!! If all goes according to plan I'll try to post our recent wonderings, adventures and Olly Woo milestones when I can, and then the miracle of technology will mean that our family and friends will be able to read about it, wherever we are.

At the mo we're not 'on tour' at all... we are still in Girton, Cambridge and loving it. The house is nice but has got major damp problens still... I can't seem to clean quick enough!!!

This week we found a car to replace our lovely Corsa. It's a gorgeous blue Renault Megane but unfortunately it's a bit bigger than I'm used to so I don't think I'll ever be able to get in and out of spaces!! It is very economical and last night we realised it's more flashy than we thought it was, with automatic wipers and a rain-sensing windscreen! Crazy!!

Yesterday one of my friends from choir, Seb, came round to take photos of Olly and a couple of the three of us (he's a brilliant photographer). We tried so hard to catch Olly's new skill- smiling- but they're just a bit too fleeting at the moment. It was still tons of fun and we had little O changing outfits every few minutes. He was dressed in a Tigger suit, some lovely dungarees he got from Nanna Pentreath, and my very favourite green starry plastic pants! He looked gorgeous and I can't wait to see the photos.

Ben is into his second week of term and enjoying lectures. He has a four-day week and he hasn't been set any work yet- both very lovely! :) We are still waiting for news from BP about where he is starting work, and probably won't get any until the Spring which is exciting. Watch this space...!

Last night we made gingerbread men, using a recipe from a children's baking book Ben's Mum and Dad gave me for Christmas. I had to run off to choir so I left Ben to do the last batch in the oven. When I got home the kitchen was REALLY smoky and the last two gingerbread men (and one gingerbread blob) were burnt to a crisp!!! Very funny- and smelly. Ben reckons he left them for over an hour!!

Anyway! That's all for now. A picture of the new car is attached- mmmm!

Love Abby (and Oliver, who is now asleep on my lap!) x